22 mars 2008

Amongst ruminations on The Elders meeting in Necca, work on Pixar's WALL e, Big Blue Ball, Amnesty International and a night out with Goldfrapp, there's a call for suggestions of songs Peter should cover.

The African hero is back with an infectious album that revels in the musical exchanges between Africa, Cuba and the blues. In London for a gig next month, he talks to Nick Duerden.

For a man described as Africa's most famous living singer, and one whom Time magazine puts among the world's 100 most influential people, Youssou N'Dour cuts a disarmingly relaxed figure. Hiccuping after drinking some fizzy mineral water, he giggles.

Here in London to promote his latest album, Rokku Mi Rokka ("Give and Take"), the Senegalese musician is in expansive mood. His Franglais burr is easy on the ear, and his smile lights up the room.

His latest album, released last autumn, is, in many ways, typical N'Dour fare: an infectious, highly rhythmic delight, his voice permeating everything like a snake in a hurry. As ever, he sings almost exclusively in Wolof, but for those of us not fluent in the language, its emotion shines through."For this album I was looking towards the music that touches me most," he explains. "African music, Cuban music, blues, maybe even some Latin sounds as well. You see, much of the music from the north of Senegal has its roots in all of these styles, and that's because when the slaves left Africa and went out into the world, they took with them their music. It has travelled far and wide since, and now it comes back to us with all sorts of different influences and colours. And it is this that I have tried to represent in my album, and why I have called it 'Give and Take'."

At least three of its minutes are geared towards capitalising on his global profile. "Wake Up (It's Africa Calling)" is the only song in English, and it reunites him with Neneh Cherry, with whom he scored an international hit 14 years ago in "7 Seconds". "Ever since that song, in 1994, I have been thinking about making an African response to it," he says. "That was me jumping to Neneh's style, to pop music. I wanted her to come over to my style now, and back to my roots."

Though it is perhaps the least convincing song on the record, its intentions are clear: the singer justifiably enjoys his international celebrity, and wants keenly to maintain it.

"For sure, for sure," he agrees. "Talent is never enough, and I work really hard to maintain my profile. For me, it is important, and for a great many reasons, oui?"

Born in Dakar in 1959, N'Dour began performing at the age of 12, much to his father's chagrin, who had wanted his son to pursue a more academic career – as a lawyer, perhaps, or a doctor, or a journalist, even, but certainly not a singer. "He was worried for me," N'Dour says. "You know, for reasons of drogue [drugs], bad living, things like this. But I was determined. We argued."

By the age of 20, N'Dour had turned professional, and quickly found success with his first band, Etoile de Dakar, right across Africa. "I never expected my music to travel," he says, "even when we became [locally] popular. But I remember travelling to Mali and hearing 2,000 people singing back my songs to me and crying. It was really just, ah, fantastique. I couldn't believe it, even though Mali is just next door to my country. To have an audience beyond home was not something I could even dream of."

Nevertheless, by 1987 his reputation had reached the ears of Peter Gabriel, with whom he collaborated on the latter's career defining So album. "Peter was wonderful to me, he played a really big part in my success," N'Dour says. Gabriel asked N'Dour to support him on a world tour, and "each night for 100 nights, Peter would introduce me, tell the crowd he was bringing out somebody very special."

The exposure landed N'Dour a major recording contract, and he went on to have success across the Western world as both a solo artist and as a collaborator, not just with Cherry, but also Bruce Springsteen, Wyclef Jean and Tracy Chapman. By the mid-1990s, he was Senegal's most famous man, and one of its richest, something he would be sure never to take for granted.

"With me, you see," he begins, "I feel like a missionnaire, almost. My music is not really my music, but something given to me by my country. So when I get success, I have to deliver something back."

To this end, he had set up a veritable empire in his homeland, and now employs more than 200 people to help him run a record label, a radio station, a nightclub and a newspaper. He has worked for Unicef, and also fronts his own humanitarian foundation that fights in Senegal's battle with malaria, as well as encouraging people from the provinces, particularly women, to come to the capital and enrol at the university.

All this is very philanthropic for a singer, Bonoesque. The majority of his Western counterparts would be far more likely to buy themselves a big house and spend days counting their money. N'Dour smiles broadly. "Well, I do have a big house, and I am very happy in it, but it has been my father's influence, I think, that has most encouraged me to do all of these things. When he finally accepted that I was to become singer, he told me to always carry myself with dignity and to do good for my country."

He does it well. Now 47, married and with seven children, he has done everything he ever set out to achieve, and more. In 1993, for example, he penned an African opera that premiered at the Opéra Bastille in Paris. He then wrote the anthem of the 1998 World Cup. In 2005, he was the only African artist to perform at Live 8, and two years ago appeared as the freed slave Olaudah Equiano in Michael Apted's Amazing Grace, a film about the abolitionist William Wilberforce.

"For much of my life I have worked really hard to have good career," he says. "I have had good life because of it, and I am a lucky man."

He is about to embark on a European tour, but increasingly he has wanted to take his foot off the pedal and enjoy the fruits of his many efforts a little more.

"I have a house on Cap-Vert. A small island off Africa; beautiful place. I like to go there and relax. It makes me feel, um..." He ruminates awhile here, a finger to his lips, before nodding his head, and smiling. "Ah, oui, it makes me feel peaceful."

'Rokku Mi Rokka' is out now on Nonesuch; Youssou N'Dour plays the IndigO2, London SE10 (0844 844 0002) on 1 April

20 mars 2008

PA READERS have the chance to acquire free tickets to an exciting evening of music in Perth Concert Hall tonight. ‘Aye: An Affirmation of Martyn Bennett’ is a tribute to and celebration of the late, great musician, Martyn Bennett

Martyn, who died in 2005 aged 33, was a piper, fiddle player and creative genius who combined classical and jazz elements with Scottish traditional music and the beats of the 90s rave and dance scenes, creating powerful and memorable compositions.

Upon hearing Bennett’s final masterpiece ‘Grit’, revered folklorist Hamish Henderson commented “what brave, new music…”, an observation shared by members of Mr McFall’s Chamber. They play in Perth tonight as the opener to the eight-date Scottish tour ‘Aye: An Affirmation of Martyn Bennett’ which visits villages and venues across Scotland as part of the Scottish Arts Council’s Tune Up initiative.

The band features a core string quartet from The Scottish Chamber Orchestra with piano, bass, drums and percussion. Formed in the mid-90s, the ensemble is well-known across Scotland, the UK and on the European festival circuit for their innovative mix of musical genres. They creatively programme the work of classical and contemporary composers alongside rock, tango, kletzmer, cartoon music and jazz.

A range of Martyn’s work including Cuillin Music (a composition for string quartet, percussion and small Scottish pipes) now features as part of the McFall’s varied body of live and recorded work, which in the past has included the likes of King Crimson, Frank Zappa, Ennio Morricone and contemporary composers such as Gavin Bryars and Dave Heath.

Mr McFall’s Chamber is joined by Scottish composer and multi-instrumentalist Fraser Fifield and percussionists Tom Bancroft and James Mackintosh. The set will include pieces by Fifield and composer Edward McGuire (both written exclusively for Mr McFall’s Chamber).

Commenting on the tour Ian Smith, head of music at the Scottish Arts Council, said: “Martyn Bennett, whilst dying at a tragically young age, has left us with such an incredible legacy of great work, brilliantly encapsulated in his last album “Grit” for Peter Gabriel’s Real World label.

“This tour, featuring McFall’s Chamber, not only celebrates Martyn’s life and creative genius, but also takes that music to so many of Scotland’s communities, all of whom will identify with emotive and moving music performed by such fantastic musicians.”

Everything about it has a sense of implication. Pings of guitar and gurgles of synthesizer dominate the sound. They're small sonic brush strokes, calling to mind an impressionist painting of a mirage.

Suited to so muted a style, Lanois insists on whispering his songs, singing in the voice of a sensual confidant, as if you alone have been allowed to listen.

For all these reasons, Lanois can seem profound, even when he's being slight. It doesn't hurt in the inflation that he ranks as one of the most important producers of the last 20 years, a reputation earned by his seminal work with U2, Eno, Peter Gabriel and Bob Dylan.

Yet on his sixth solo album, out today, Lanois' airy gestures often seem more like highbrow shtick. We've heard all these tricks before, and in finer form, on earlier works.

In a way, the recycling makes sense. The music on "Here Is What Is" accompanies a like-titled, self-financed documentary in which Lanois explains his basic muse and art. Sound bites from the film dot the CD, including quotes from Brian Eno, who's presented as the Guru of All Time. It's a wonder he's not introduced with a voiceover intoning, "Oh Great One, tell us how you became so wondrous a god."

Essentially, "What Is" offers 18 snippets of songs, vignettes ranging from small piano or guitar instrumentals to short ballads. They're all languid and intimate. Sounds ooze: Basses trickle, guitars trace. Some pieces seem as much incantations as songs. At their worst, they feel like atmospheres in search of solid form.

There's some beauty to be had here. Lanois' use of the pedal steel guitar remains unique. It's not a typical country sound. His playing has its own liquid weep. It's a fine sliver of sound.

But such things have come to seem like formula, especially since they've been performed so much better on Lanois' perfect 1989 debut, "Acadie," and its gracious followup, "For the Beauty of Wynona."

Only in the final cut, "Luna Samba," does Lanois offer something rare: a jazzy jam with aggressive guitar, assertive bass and a Brazilian drum. He should try rocking out more often.

There's no debating the skill of Daniel Lanois as a producer, not after his transcendently beautiful work with U2, Peter Gabriel, and Bob Dylan. His solo discs also have a gentle force of their own. Lanois makes music for meditation - and this new record extends the reach of this decade's previous full-length releases, "Shine"and "Belladonna."

He again explores the cosmic side of pedal-steel guitar, which he says "takes me to a sacred place - it's my little church in a suitcase." This comment is from several snippets of dialogue with famed producer Brian Eno woven through the CD (and taken from a new DVD with the same title). The minimalist atmospheres achieve a quiet psychedelia aided by jazz drummer Brian Blade and keyboardist Garth Hudson of the Band, a worthy accomplice.

Lanois sings with the softly arresting tone of Leonard Cohen and Robbie Robertson, while expressing his spiritual search: "Give me hope . . . in any situation give me heaven," he intones on "I Like That." Some of his lyrics are more fuzzy and unfathomable (no one said Lanois was an easy study), but he hones his craft with another deeply calming disc that is among his best.

West Hollywood, CA. (Top40 Charts/ Cedar Mesa Music) - Throughout the western United States, there still are remote, uninhabited wilderness areas of serenity and great beauty, especially forsaken canyons where native tribes once lived, some of them thousands of years ago. Musician Scott August, a multi-instrumentalist best-known for his artistry in playing Native American wood flutes, has crafted a recording, Lost Canyons, that captures the experience of spending a day surrounded by nature in one of these secluded locations. (...)

Lost Canyons is August's fourth CD, preceded by Distant Spirits (nominated for a Native American Music Award, NAMMY), Sacred Dreams (a NAMMY winner!), and New Fire (another NAMMY nominee and a winner of the prestigious Indian Summer Music Award). August also has released Ancient Light, a DVD of 450 stunning photographs he took while exploring the Southwest, with the soundtrack selected from the first three CDs plus one new piece. August also headlined the Zion Native American Flute Festival in 2006 and 2007, and the Central Coast Flute Festival in 2007.

Scott's interest in music began as a small child. He was born in Los Angeles and raised in Fullerton in Southern California. Scott's father played numerous instruments informally, Scott's grandfather was a professional classical violinist with a radio show in Los Angeles and concerts at the Hollywood Bowl, and Scott's great-grandfather led a folk band. One of Scott's earliest musical memories is a Stan Getz-Joao Gilberto bossa nova album.

At age seven, Scott began studying cello and playing in school orchestras. When he was nine he got a kalimba for Christmas which awakened his love for ethnic sounds. His senior year in high school he started to play piano and began practicing classical music at least six hours a day for the next few years. He played in a few bands, but primarily studied music which took him to the University of Southern California as a composition student where he graduated with a Bachelor of Music degree. As a child he grew up listening to both classical music and popular music such as The Beatles, but as he got older he explored progressive rock (Emerson Lake & Palmer, Yes, Genesis, King Crimson, Tangerine Dream and Klaus Schulze).

At USC, August spent most of his free time in the electronic-music lab where he learned to use synthesizers, sound sampling and processing, and music interfacing with computers. His musical taste moved to cutting-edge ambient and atmospheric artists such as Brian Eno, Harold Budd and Steve Roach, 'and their music became the roots of my inspiration.' In college Scott began making recordings using piano, synths, autoharp, kalimbas and guitar. At first he made cassettes and later pressed a vinyl album of this music to submit it to radio stations. It got airplay in Los Angeles on KCRW's 'Morning Becomes Eclectic' show and KXLU's 'Alien Air Music' program, and on the New York station WNYC. He met and spent time talking about music with Steve Roach. In addition, August's musical influences expanded to include Steve Tibbetts (an eclectic fusion guitarist), Jon Hassell (a trumpeter who merged electronics with world music sounds) and Peter Gabriel.Brian Eno listened to some of August's early recordings, told him how visual the music was, and suggested Scott consider scoring. So August submitted music to an ad agency and soon became an in-demand composer for films, videos, commercials and TV shows. His clients have included NASA, Lexus, Chevrolet, HBO, Nabisco and Minolta. One of many projects he has done for The Discovery Channel was the soundtrack for the film they showed repeatedly at an IMAX-style theater in the Olympic Village in Atlanta. (...)

Photo credit: Jennifer TipoulowListen to a clip of Daniel Lanois'"Where Will I Be"

The tremendously gifted producer, known for his work with U2, Bob Dylan, Peter Gabriel and many others, has made a career of assembling just the right musical textures and ambience, crafting breathtaking soundscapes along the way. He has also released a handful of solo albums, including the 1989 masterpiece, "Acadie," which should be an essential element in any music connoisseur's collection.

So on the infrequent occasions when Lanois does emerge with a solo album, it's typically cause for celebration.

"Here is What Is," is the artist's sixth release and was originally available as a digital download. It's now seeing its physical debut, issued in conjunction with the DVD premiere of a film of the same name, which documents Lanois and his work in the recording studio.

The music is wonderfully sparse, dominated by Lanois' favorite instrument, the pedal steel guitar, which he calls "My little church in a suitcase."

He's accompanied by jazz drummer Brian Blade and the great Band keyboardist Garth Hudson, the latter in particular who adds some beautiful work to the disc, particularly during the lengthy piano introduction to "Lovechild."

There's a mystical quality to much of the album, one that can be heard on "Where Will I Be," which was initially recorded by Emmylou Harris on her Lanois-produced album "Wrecking Ball." A subtle spirituality can be heard on that song, a theme that Lanois brings much more to the forefront on "Joy;" the marvelously sung "I Like That;" and especially on "This May Be The Last Time," a roaring gospel track powered by Blade's father from the Zion Baptist Church.

Bits of dialogue from the film also make their way onto the CD, including a few conversations between Lanois and his longtime colleague Brian Eno. One, dubbed "Sacred and Secular," finds Eno discussing atheism, while Lanois counters with how his love of the pedal steel guitar takes him to his own sacred place.

Musical minimalism reigns supreme on "Here Is What Is," which doesn't quite match the enduring brilliance of some of Lanois' early solo work such as "Acadie," yet nevertheless serves as a welcome reminder of his artistic splendor, which stretches far beyond his production work.

The disc is also being released as a deluxe CD/DVD package, with the DVD featuring more than an hour of additional footage - including alternate versions of songs from the film - as well as a booklet and photographs, including one photo signed by Lanois. This edition is limited to 3000 copies. Check out Redfloorrecords.com for additional purchasing information.

Artist: Daniel LanoisAlbum: Here Is What Is What Is (Red Floor Records)

As a producer more interested in atmospheric sensibilities than technical perfection, Daniel Lanois has masterminded career-defining albums for U2, Bob Dylan and Peter Gabriel, often reinventing their sound by adding layers of mystery and depth. Recorded with jazz drummer Brian Blade and pianist Garth Hudson, Lanois’ sixth studio album is an eclectic mix of richly textured rock songs, mellow vibes and hypnotic instrumentals, interspersed with snippets from philosophical conversations with mentor Brian Eno. Ghostly fuzz guitars hover over the title track, and the haunting “Where Will I Be,” previously recorded by Emmylou Harris, reveals a soulful songwriter. Though limited in range, Lanois’ hushed vocals are pure and soothing on the Dylan-inspired “Not Fighting Anymore,” but he seems even more at home in the sublime, wordless waves of his pedal steel guitar.

Adored by honeymooners, Mauritius has also won a place in the hearts of the literati. Charlotte Cripps discovers why

A local fisherman dressed in nothing but his Y-fronts stands in the shallows waiting for a bite. Nearby, security guards patrol the beach sporting pressed white uniforms. (If you squint, they resemble Richard Gere in An Officer and a Gentleman.) The island of Mauritius, which celebrates 40 years of independence from the UK this month, is about the same size as Surrey, but unlike Surrey it has plenty of stunning beaches where you can fish, or flop, to your heart's content – and all of them are open to the general public.(...)

(...) We pass Peter Gabriel playing table tennis before settling down to dinner at the hotel's floating restaurant, where giant fish make plopping sounds as they leap in the mangroves of the hotel's natural reserve. Here, I become breathless with menu names as long as my arm ("Clove and lemon flavoured soufflé, light cream with Grand Marnier, chilled truffle with tamarind and ganache with candied orange, sparkling flaky praline"). (...)

18 mars 2008

With an ever increasing number of people downloading their music for free, albeit often illegally, over the web, the music industry is at a critical juncture: adapt or die.

We7 is a music download website that hopes to set the tone for the music industry in the 21st century. It thinks it has found a way to make music available for free and yet still generate revenue for record companies and artists.

People want to be able to access and use music in an ever greater number of ways, while artists and record companies want to ensure that they get paid when people use their product. It is now accepted that DRM is too restrictive and impractical to manage, so a new way is needed.

Steve Purdham, CEO of We7, thinks his company has the answer. Speaking exclusively to HEXUS.channel, he said: ‘We are in a new digital economy but the music industry is still stuck in its old ways. When I got involved in We7 a year ago it was much worse.’

We7 was founded less than a year ago, when Purdham was exploring an investment in music download company OD2. He found himself in a room with VC John Taysom (who’s idea We7 originally was) and musician Peter Gabriel, who had founded OD2 back in 1999.

They explored the idea and decided to run with it. If they have any respect for tradition, they will still have the fag packet, beer mat or serviette they first scribbled their ideas down on.

Their timing would appear to be perfect as there has been a stream of announcements from the great and the good of the music industry since then that things have got to change.

What brought We7 to HEXUS.channel’s attention was the announcement last Monday that Sony BMG, one of the four major record companies, will be making its catalogue available through We7 from the end of April, although only for streaming at first. That and the fact that Peter Gabriel is involved.

‘The turning point was last Christmas, when the majors realised that DRM was dead,' said Purdham. ‘Most tracks aren’t DRM protected anyway, with CDs and BitTorrent-type downloads being the source of the majority of music.’

t's all about choice

So if you can’t make people pay for music, how do you make money out of it? 'It’s all about choice,' says Purdham. 'Our philosophy is: come to the site, listen to the track and then decide how you want to pay for it.

'We have an ad-funded alternative, which allows us to target advertising at our users, who have to register in order to access our services. This ability to target is very valuable to advertisers. We can also dynamically graft audio ads to the start of the music file, which stay with you when you download it.'

Of course, HEXUS.channel wasn’t about to just take Purdham’s word for it so we created an account and downloaded BB King’s Woke Up This Morning. On playing the MP3, we had to sit through a ten second audio ad for Altec Lansing speakers and then it was straight on to BB. We have to report that we were unable to make the streaming function work, but it’s unclear where the fault lies for that.

'After four weeks of ownership we give people the ability to remove the ad from the MP3, but the key commercial factor is how useful the metrics on our registered users are to advertisers,' explained Purdham.

Things seem to be taking off for We7. It had a million downloads in the last six months of 2007 and topped a million in the first six weeks of this year. Maybe the music industry has finally realised that the way to make money out of content is to offer it free and sell advertising on the back of it. It’s crazy but it might just work.

WOMAD Earth Station is being planned as a camping event to be held on the Fleurieu Peninsula each October, starting from 2010.

Womadelaide's new environmental spinoff event will take up to 10 years to fully develop. "We have a preferred site and we've an agreed price with the owner of that site," aid Arts Projects Australia director Ian Scobie."Subject to local council approvals we will proceed with that. It will probably be finalised by July."A second, backup site has also been earmarked in Eden Valley.

APA is working on the Earth Station concept with developer Woods Bagot as well as Womadelaide's parent organisation WOMAD – World of Music, Arts and Dance – which was cofounded by singer Peter Gabriel in England in 1982.

Mr Scobie said it would take up to a decade to develop the Earth Station site to be environmentally sustainable. "We've got a long way to go. The project has really got a 10-year window of development,"Mr Scobie said.

"The first festival will probably be presented in similar formats to Womadelaide, with temporary facilities and generators. The infrastructure development for recycling the effluent and all of those things are going to take years to develop."

Environmental strategies will include planting reed beds and trees. A preliminary planting festival is likely to be held to prepare the site, which would be able to accommodate several thousand campers. The Premier, Mr Rann, said the State Government would work with WOMAD Earth Station to develop renewable wind and/or solar power for the site.

"Part of the experience is living in this global village,"Mr Rann said. "This would be the greenest festival in Australia." Mr Rann also said the existing Womadelaide festival had been signed up until 2014, with an option to extend until 2019.

For the first time in the event's 16-year history, all three-day passes sold out in advance this year. Womadelaide organisers are also looking at expanding future events from three to four days. Victoria, like South Australia, has a public holiday on the Monday. About half of Womadelaide's audience this year came from interstate and overseas, according to exit polls conducted over the weekend.

We7, a free, advertising-supported online music service backed by Peter Gabriel, has become the first to claim the support of a major label, after Sony BMG, home to Mark Ronson, Bruce Springsteen and the Hoosiers, pledged to license its catalogue of more than 250,000 tracks to the company's new online music streaming service. (...)

Gabriel, who has consistently been in the vanguard of the digital music business and previously had a hand in launching early download business OD2, said: "The digital revolution has produced exciting and extraordinary opportunities in the music business, even though it has been largely written off by many. We7 is a model that will supply free music to the consumer and still provide a stream of revenue to musicians and content owners." (...)

It is one of the fates of singers with high media profiles that their careers are often reduced to a couple of memorable moments. They, too, have their Andy Warhol 15 minutes.

In the case of Sinead O'Connor she will always be remembered as that elfin, angel-like girl with the amazing voice who sent Prince's Nothing Compares 2 U to the top of the charts around the world in 1990. Yep - 18 years ago. And, two years later, she tore up a picture of Pope John Paul II while singing an a capella version of Bob Marley's War on Saturday Night Live.

Now that she is 41 and a mother of four, how does she look back on her wild, rebellious youth?

"I don't really remember it," she admits from her home in the south Dublin suburb of Bray.

"I have a 10-year period when I don't really remember anything. I ran out of disc space somewhere along the way. I feel disconnected from that time in my life - except musically. Musically, I can remember everything and connect with who I was at that point. When I hear about it, it is like a movie of someone else."

This, of course, isn't quite correct. Asked about the famous night at the Bob Dylan 30th anniversary concert at Madison Square Garden when, two weeks after tearing up the photo of the Pope, she was booed by an angry audience, she remembers it with great clarity.

"Half the audience were cheering; half were booing," she says. "My main memory of that night was that it was the most incredible noise I had ever heard. I had never heard a sound like it before or since. It was a great clash of the two halves of the audience. It made me want to throw up, which is kind of interesting.

"Before the show Willie Nelson had asked me if I would meet him the following day and record Peter Gabriel's Don't Give Up. I had agreed. Then there was all the booing and as I exited the stage Willie, who was as cool as a cucumber, said, 'I hope this doesn't mean you're not coming in tomorrow.' The next day was great because I went to record with him."

Also at that concert Kris Kristofferson told her, "Don't let the bastards get you down," and comforted her. When this is mentioned, she says wryly: "Yeah. I think he probably wanted to get in my pants."

Today, sadly, when most people think about O'Connor, they recall those uncharacteristic moments in her career. It is hugely unfair because during the past 18 years O'Connor has established herself as one of the founders of the "girl power" movement, which was spearheaded by the likes of Madonna and Cyndi Lauper and eventually included performers as diverse as the Spice Girls, Alanis Morissette, Amy Winehouse, PJ Harvey, Britney Spears and Courtney Love.

O'Connor questions this assessment of her importance.

"I would disagree that I was charting a new path. I think I was on a path but I hadn't been the one to start it. There were other women like Patti Smith or even women like Barbra Streisand who I admired because of the way they asserted themselves artistically. I wouldn't say that I chartered a path. There was a path there."I suppose the only thing I chartered a path for was women shaving their heads. It saves you a lot of money on hair products."

The irony of O'Connor's career is that after a wonderfully rebellious few years in which she spoke frankly, sang with deep wellsprings of passion and opened up new worlds of possibility for female singers, her rebellion took her into places where her voice and her importance were greatly diminished.

Recently she has spent years embracing reggae and Rastafarianism: she toured with the great Sly and Robbie and recorded an entire album of reggae, Throw Down Your Arms. She has recorded a double album called Theology in which most of the songs were the words of the Bible put to music. She has released a single from Jesus Christ Superstar called I Don't Know How To Love Him.

In 2002, just to show she was in touch with her Irish roots, she recorded Sean-Nos Nua, a collection of traditional folk songs that she explains as "that's something that's in the DNA".

Also interesting has been her decision to pursue the independent path of the likes of Ani DiFranco and the John Butler Trio. Her latest album, Theology, was released on her own label, the eccentrically named That's Why There's Chocolate And Vanilla. The label name is an expression her manager used to use to explain why some people loved O'Connor's music while others were indifferent to it. She likes the freedom independence gives, saying with understated humour: "If I want to make a record of dog noises, I can."

The biggest change in her life, however, occurred 3 1/2 years ago when she was diagnosed with bipolar disorder.

"The main way it manifested in my life was that I was very suicidal. I was acting suicidally in life, getting myself into situations that were self-destructive, acting in a manner that was symbolically suicidal. That kicked in when I was about 22. It just snowballed and got worse.

"It became almost a compulsion. It was a bit like those old vampire movies where the woman sleepwalks towards a graveyard. You can't resist the suicide. My children never knew that I was feeling suicidal. I would never have acted on it. I also had this guilt because of the kids. I felt guilty for even feeling suicidal. It was a relief to get diagnosed."

Now she has returned to touring. It has not been easy. She says that when she returned to the live stage last year she "hadn't played live for about 10 years. I wanted to look after my [four] children and spend some time with them."

This is not O'Connor's maiden trip to Australia but she has not done shows here before. "I've never actually played in Australia. I can't wait."I am bringing a guitarist, bass, drums, keyboards and violin. Five people. The material I will be playing goes back to the beginning of my career. We're going back to my first album, The Lion And The Cobra. It's an hour-and-a-half of songs from all of my albums but not the cover albums [which means no reggae covers from Throw Down Your Arms and no folk from Sean-Nos Nua].

"It is all Sinead O'Connor songs. We do only three songs from Theology. It is all the hits and misses. I am joking."

And when it comes to all that rebellion and those images of her ripping up the photo of the Pope, her answer is simple.

"It irritates me that anything comes between me and the music. It has always irritated me that the focus would not be on the music. I have to bear some of the responsibility for that, obviously."

Clattering noisily about the wooden floors of the recording studio where she is making her new album, Gwyneth Herbert sounds a happy woman.

Six months ago, she was in the midst of a turbulent period of change. After three years of being marketed as the latest "nu-jazz" diva to put a modern spin on old standards, she had left label Universal and was bravely going it alone on third album Between Me And The Wardrobe, a collection of songs written solely by her.

Understated, poignant and witty, it caught the attention of legendary jazz label Blue Note, which, on the basis of a shared understanding of each other, made the 25-year-old its first signing in 30 years.

The new-found freedom, paired with the critical acclaim heaped on her last effort, has changed Herbert. Her new work is distinctly more upbeat, "a bit less reflective and more ballsy".

"I think I'm probably feeling a lot happier in myself at the moment, so I'm having more fun in my writing.Before, it was more of a need to express myself'," she says, vocalising the speech marks self-deprecatingly. "But now I'm finding my voice."

She hadn't intended to record another album but had been invited to do a few tracks at the studio Peter Gabriel's Real World, in Wiltshire and had somehow fallen into it, thus avoiding the anxiety that follow-ups usually prompt.

It was completed in two days, beating her previous personal best by a day.

"By the next one, we'll have it done in 24 hours," she laughs It is, she says, another album of "story-songs", this time about everything from a Russian prostitute (Natalia) to her "very camp" boyfriend (Narrow Man)."There are definitely dark bits to it, but the dark bits are really stormy and loud, with more belly and oomph," she says. "It's more hooky and singalong-y. You couldn't have called the last album singalong-y."

After being left jaded by her experiences with Universal - "The marketing always came first and the music second" - Herbert was apprehensive about signing to another record label.

But she realised it would have been "madness" to turn down Blue Note."It was a bit ridiculous, quite scary and an amazing privilege," she says, of the signing, "They have this musical history and lineage of amazing jazz players - it was also a bit bizarre because I didn't think Between Me And The Wardrobe was a jazz album. But they're amazing. It's a breath of fresh air."

It has now been four years since Herbert's first album, for much of which she has been hailed as the next big thing. "If Gwyneth Herbert is not a star before long, I'll eat my CD player," wrote a Sunday Times reviewer.

Does she hope this will be the year she finally gets that widespread recognition?"There have been so many times when people have said, Oh, she's going to be a huge star,' but it's never been my aim," Herbert says nonchalantly.

"I'm signed to a label I love and playing my own stuff. I feel like this is my year already."

Peter Gabriel has one in his studio. Bjork takes hers on tour. But what exactly is it? Tim gets to grips with the radical new instrument that's part digital sampler, part light-show – and part toy

Blip. Blip. Blip. Blip-donk-blip. Blip. Blip. Blip-donk-blip-tshk-blip. Blip. Wraaa- AAAOOoow. Blip. This is the noise of a novice trying to make something resembling music from the world's newest musical instrument, the Tenori-On. And, by the way, it sounds a whole lot better than it reads. Designed by Japanese media artist Toshio Iwai and built by Yamaha, the Tenori-On is a remarkable piece of kit that has already made its way into the excited, sweaty palms of musical pioneers such as Peter Gabriel and Bjork. (...)

Peter Gabriel has supposedly added the Tenori-On to the array of instruments at his Real World Studios in Wiltshire. Fairbanks released his Tenori-On album, 7 Days Microsleep, as a free audio download, but also released some of the tracks as Tenori-On native data, which means that fellow Tenori-On players can deconstruct (and reconstruct) his tracks, becoming amateur remixers at the drop of a hat. Those who want to can happily store albums'-worth of material on the memory card. (...)